Chapters 9, 10, & 13

I've always been an athletic person, and sports have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. For the most part, I've had a wonderful experience on almost every sports team I've ever been on....great teammates and inspirational and effective coaches. Chapter 9 brought up many memories from my sporting past. Ray discusses the importance of working and improving upon our own writing practices as we teach them to our students. She went on to explain that students 'listen to me because they see that I know what I'm talking about. You can't get that if you don't write' (p. 99). When thinking back to some of my least favorite memories in sports, I automatically think about those few coaches that never had the full respect of the team. As players or students, it is very difficult to take instruction from someone that you don't respect. I can remember coaches yelling at us to do this or play like this when we all knew that this particular coach had no playing experience whatsoever. Drill after drill, play after play, our coach would continue to criticize our every move. How could I listen to someone that had no idea what I was going through? He had never felt the pressure of a close game or the stress of unending practices. He had no idea what I was going through...and I respected him less because of it. This same exact thing goes in our classrooms. How can we expect our students to respect us and take our advice if they can't relate to us in some way? We need to show our students that we actually do know what we're talking about. We've been there before. We've struggled with that same thing. We can only do this by practicing our own writing and not simply telling them how to do theirs. As I reflect now, I've realized that my most memorable and effective coaches are those that had actually been in my shoes before....not those that had simply claimed to be.

"We are all people who write in here"

Random thought about Chapter 13: In the intro to the chapter, Ray describes a short whole-class introduction that she did with her class. As I read through her introduction 'monologue', if you will, I couldn't help but notice her easy, open, and understanding tone she used with her students. Never once did she set any strict rules, assignments, or regulations. She used phrases like 'Some of you might want to...', 'I was thinking that you might...', 'If you find one you like, you might....', and 'If anyone wants or needs to try...let me know how it goes for you. I'd love to find out...'. I absolutely love how she spoke to her students. I love the informality of it. I love the openness of it. She was giving her students ideas but not set assignments. I can only imagine the respect she must hold from her students.

I love the idea of having underlying teaching in your lessons. Ray talks about how during one of her writing workshop introductions, she read a poem of hers about overalls (instead of some huge topic like love, nature, dreams, etc) to show to her students that we can and should have faith in the ordinary. Students internalize so much more than we give them credit for, and this is why it is so important to plan our lessons with the utmost care. Although we might not say something directly, students notice the underlying meaning in lessons, readings, and assignments. Because we know this, we have a responsibility to enrich our student's mind in as many ways as possible...whether it be directly or indirectly. When planning lessons, even just short lessons like Ray's overall lesson, we need to make the most of every interpretation of what we are trying to get across to our students.

Chapters 1-5

For me, one of the most intimidating tasks involved in teaching is planning and implementing exciting, meaningful lesson plans that students will not only benefit from but also enjoy. While reading about Writers Workshop, I came to the realization that Writers Workshop is a dream for both the students and the teacher.  Now before you call me lazy...I want you to understand exactly what I mean. Students benefit from Writers Workshop because it provides them with an enjoyable, personal time to explore their own thoughts and feelings and write about them however they may please. Teachers benefit from Writers Workshop because their students are given a time in the day that exemplifies the enjoyment and fun of writing. Through Writers Workshop, teachers are able to show their students that writing can be very pleasant...especially when writing about something personally interesting. It's kind of like killing two birds with one stone: the students are practicing important writing techniques (sometimes without even knowing it) and teachers are providing their students with creative, unrestricted time that benefits the students. And it doesn't hurt that there isn't too much planning involved....kidding, kidding.

Once the students get a feel for Writers Workshop, they can begin molding some of the activities to better fit their own interests. As I've recently learned, Writers Workshop is all about the students and their interests and thoughts. So why not allow the students to plan some of the centers or activities in Writers Workshop? It seems to me that this democratic style of teaching would greatly appeal to the students. I imagine that they would all enjoy picking the different activities and would treat Writers Workshop time with the utmost respect being as they were the ones to plan it.

In this reading, I really connected with Ray's description of why writing and should not be integrated with other subjects in the classroom. Obviously, there will be many times when students will need to read and write purely about a certain subject or subjects. But, Ray makes a fabulous point when she lists her many reasons why writing and reading should be taught independently and away from the other subjects. When I think about my writing career as a person, the first thing I think of is the millions of essays and papers I've written throughout my educational career. Like Ray says, when we are writing for other subjects, yes, we are writing, but we are writing to serve something else. There are so few times that I can remember in school when I was given an opportunity to just write...write with no ulterior motives....write just to write....no topic involved. I hope my future students never feel that same way.